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So, You think you can sell timeshare, privately?

Interview 18:10 14/10/1997 with owner’s representative.

method

Select advertisement from Loot. Call the advertiser on the pretext of being a buyer. Aim to uncover sales patter of a private vendor. Summarise main points of interview.

Advertisement seen in Loot 3-6 October 1997.

Canary Islands, Tenerife,near Playa de las Americas, furnished property, sleeps 8, luxury timeshare, Sunset Bay Resort, 1 min beach, on site entertainment, swimming pools etc. RCI member, £4,750 ovno. 0181 551 xxxx

Me: Is this a private sale?

Reply : Yes. The unit is three bedroom, sleeping 8, week 47.

[It turned out to be owned by "his dad" who wants to sell up and go to Florida.]

["his dad" possible use of higher authority]

Me: Had it been for sale long?

Reply: No, in fact he’s only just decided to sell it. The last couple of weeks are being rented out for £250 each.

[There followed a long diatribe explaining about RCI, and how the "system" worked. I was not asked if I already knew about the workings of timeshare. I played dumb and asked for more explanations of the exchange system.]

Me: So you buy this week for £4750, then rent it out for £250 every year. That will take a few years to get the money back, even if you can go to lots of other countries through RCI.

Reply: Yes, but the beauty is you can go around the world staying at guaranteed quality 5 star accommodation, unlike these hotels that turn out differently to how they are portrayed.

Me: I see, so are there any other fees when renting out?

Reply : Naturally there are a few other bits and pieces, but not much.

[There followed more explanations about the exchange system.]

Me: You talked about extra fees. What are these extra fees?

Reply : There’s an exchange fee, and a guest certificate.

Me: How much are these extras?

Reply: Well, you don’t have to pay them, unless you exchange into your own resort at a different time of the year to when you own, or if you want to go to another resort, which most people do. It’s about £40 or £60 to exchange, in fact it’s probably £60, £40 sounds too low for the exchange fee.

Me: I see, £60 for the exchange fee?

[The fee in 1997 was actually £72 per European exchange]

Reply : Yes, I think it was that last time.

Me: And the guest certificate…?

Reply : £20.

Me: Let’s talk about the week for sale. It’s £4750 for one week? Are there any other costs?

Reply: Well, the £4700 is what you pay to get into the system. I always tell people everything that is involved. I don’t think its fair not to. Besides you wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t, would you?

Me: Are there any other costs?

Reply: Well, we call it disbursements. You don’t pay anything more. You just pay what you paid for it.

Me: So it’s £4750 and nothing more to pay? What about these disbursements?

Reply : £200. It’s a maintenance fee.

Me: Uuumm. (pause) … All in all it sounds more than I can afford at the moment. Thank you for your time.

Notes

No attempt was made to find out if I knew about timeshare, take my name, pass me onto "his dad", offer to send me printed out details, take my address or phone number, perhaps to send out more information. Prevarication over telling me the maintenance fee. The current exchange fee was not mentioned, but an old one was.

Interview 2

16/10/97 Time 21:35.

method

Contacted advertiser in Loot, posing as potential buyer of an advertised timeshare property. The number was a mobile telephone. When I made a brief enquiry about the mobile phone, the responder was readily agreeable to ring me back. It transpired that the timeshare vendor was the contacts mother who lived in Scotland. She gave me some preliminary information and I asked if I could ring her mother some other time, as it was now quite late. The woman told me that she would get her mother to ring me right away, and that there was no need for me to worry about the late evening time, as she would be up.

Time 21:50

Reply : …

Me: I saw your advertisement in Loot. We’ve never done a timeshare holiday before. We were down in Spain in the summer and wondered about it.

Reply: Well, its one of the smaller apartments. 2 single beds, an area for the kitchen, … #inaudible# …a living room with a bed-settee sofa… A front patio with barbecue area. You have a front garden area. Its in the complex. … It belongs to Barratts. One of the Barratts resorts.

Me: How long have you had it?

Reply: We bought it about 14 years ago.

Me: Probably a silly question, but can you remember how much you paid for it.

Reply: I think at that time we paid about £2,500.

Me: You’re asking £2,000 now. Its not appreciated in value.

Reply: No, no it hasn’t.

Me: Has that annoyed you?

Reply: To a degree. It’s one of these things. You can take holidays, but its always there if you want to go.

Me: Did you enjoy it?

Reply: Oh yes, we did. What we actually did was we used it a week at a time. We hired a car at the airport. It gives you access to Gibraltar, Rhonda, we actually went a trip to Madrid itself, and all round, you know..

Me: You don’t have to go there every year, do you?

Reply: No. You can actually. Barratt #inaudible# there’s a company you can swap timeshares with. Umm. I think you can put it in for a swap and you can take someone else’s timeshare. And they take yours.

Me: Does that cost very much.

Reply: There is a fee. It’s about 70-odd

Me: They charge you 70 pounds to swap it?

Reply: Yes.

Me: Do they charge for anything else?

Reply: Well, you have management fees for the timeshare itself.

Me: Alright. You have to pay them, what?.

Reply: Annually, well, I pay by standing order on a monthly basis

Me: Is that very much?.

Reply: It works out at 19 pound every month.

Me: 19 a month.? And that’s just for one week?

Reply: Right. Yes.

…

Me: Where does that go? I suppose the swimming pool….

Reply: Well, it goes on the upkeep, and refurbish from it and the upkeep of the flats and furniture.

Me: So it’s always of a good standard?

Reply: Oh, yes.

Me: How often do they refurbish it?

Reply: I think they look at it, annually, they have a meeting, they send you out a management meeting for the year and they look at the refurbishing and things like that.

Me: Have there ever been areas where you have been unhappy with it?

Reply: Uum. Not really. The place is normally tidy.

Me: Your daughter said you wanted to sell it quickly, because there was no-one else using it.

Reply: That’s right… moved away…

Me: You’re selling a week in December. [my intention was to be incredulous at holidays not in the summer]

Reply: Yes, Saturday to Saturday [totally missed my intended surprise at a December holiday]

Me: If you wanted to go in the summer, can you do it?

Reply: No, I think you have to do a swap. It’s about 70 ...

Me: 70?

Reply: Ah-ah, I couldn’t be certain on that one.

Me: I don’t know. Have you got any details to send out?

Reply: Err, uum.

Me: I don’t know anything about this resort at all except for what you’re telling me.

Reply: No. If, if I can find a leaflet about it, it’s got, I think its got other timeshare in it as well, umm, their other resorts, but if you want I’ll get a leaflet, one of the old ones, quite good, and send you it. Is that any good?

Me: Well, on the face of it, if I’m going to spend a lot of money

Reply: No, it’s alright, I understand completely … few lines in a newspaper

[started to give her my address]

Me: Have you just being trying to sell it privately?

Reply: Yes. I was just down in London with my daughter and we were just discussing to sell it. I hadn’t seen Loot before. It is in a complex. You feel very safe.

[Address given and information sent by mail, received a week later]